Ambrosie lauds Riders as league leaders

Team a CFL lesson, commissioner says

While extolling the benefits of CFL 2.0, commissioner Randy Ambrosie turned up the flattery meter to 2,000,000.0.

Ambrosie was effusive in his praise of the Saskatchewan Roughriders when “Randy’s

Road Trip” made a stop at Mosaic Stadium’s Harvard 620 Lounge on Saturday.

The theme of his opening address revolved around the need for the CFL to think in grandiose terms. He cited the local professional football team and its loyalists as a template.

“You are the most magnificent lesson in our league,” said Ambrosie. “You, right here, and all of you in this province, are the lesson.”

On Saturday, he cemented his relationship with Rider Nation — while providing perspective to accompany the “Everything’s Coming Up (Amb)ros(i)es” pep talk.

He referenced “some of those humble days, and you know them” while alluding to the gory years in which telethons and other forms of creative fundraising were required to sustain the Green and White.

“This franchise struggled at times,” he said, “and it was a decision by your leaders to think about this football team differently — to embrace the idea that the Roughriders could lead the league rather than lag the league.

“This is the franchise that really sets the tone for what we all can be, because we know that this wasn’t always the way it was. This is special.”

And easy to overlook, considering the grandeur of the new stadium and the Roughriders’ bulging bank account.

Some current members of the team weren’t even alive on March 15, 1997, when the most recent telethon was held.

At the time, the Roughriders and the league were in a precarious state. Back then, the notion of a new stadium in Regina was as laughable as the artificial turf.

The franchise was mired in debt until the early 2000s. A profit of (get this) $455 on the Roughriders’ 2006 operations was a cause for celebration.

Then came the transformative season of 2007. Kent Austin,

Eric Tillman, Kerry Joseph and associates delivered a Grey Cup championship in storybook fashion.

Suddenly, there was a voracious demand for Roughriders tickets. Sellouts became the norm. The inadequacies of

Taylor Field were fully exposed. Soon, the discussion turned from renovating the old ballpark to erecting a pristine pigskin palace.

“Every time I’m here and I go down to that field and look up in the stands, I go, ‘Oh my gosh. How far they’ve come,’ ” Ambrosie marvelled.